12 February 2007

Treasure Cay to Great Guana Cay to Marsh Harbor

February 12, 2007

On Saturday morning we had a beautiful sail from Treasure Cay to Great Guana Cay. The winds were on our beam so we set our sails and our course and left the rest up to the autopilot while Hans did some fishing and Kristen worked on the crossword puzzle.


The two sailors on the way from Treasure Cay to Great Guana Cay. Kitkat, get back to steering!


Hans' first catch with the handlines...a baby barracuda.


On most days, we can see the bottom while we're sailing.

The main purpose for our trip to Great Guana Cay was the infamous Nippers’ Sunday Pig Roast Buffet. We headed over to Nippers’ around noontime and met up with Dylan and Mark from “Freya,” the steel boat from Maine that we last saw in St. Augustine. An hour or so later, the gang from Green Turtle and Ocracoke showed up along with Jerry from Newburyport and the fun really started! The pig roast was good, the sides were excellent, and the rum punch was dangerously good. The group gathered there was a mix of tourists staying at hotels on the island and boaters like ourselves and after everyone had a couple rum punches, the dancing really began in earnest. We hear that later in March Nippers’ gets really wild and people are dancing on the roof! On the way back to Whisper, we bumped into a literal boat load of Italians who were on a charter vacation. They came over for a coconut opening demonstration led by Hans with his machete on the foredeck. Later in the evening, we went over to visit Jerry and his girlfriend Laurie for some delicious shrimp scampi and salad.


Hanging out at Nippers. Laurie, Robbie, Hans & Jerry.


The view from Nippers.

After listening to the weather this morning at 9:00AM, we quickly weighed anchor and sailed out of the anchorage toward Marsh Harbor with the goal of arriving before noon and the potential squalls and 30 knot winds that are heading our way. We had a fun, fast sail to Marsh Harbor with our average speed between 5 and 6 knots and a heel of about 10-15 degrees. We had the anchor down at 11:30 just as a boat from Sweden pulled in the harbor. Marsh Harbor is the “mecca” of sailing and boating in the Abacos so we’re excited to go ashore and see what the town has to offer. It’s not all fun and games, however, as our first chore is to find a Laundromat.




We always see magnificent sunsets, sunrises (sometimes), and daytime cloud shows. These are some pictures taken just over the last 3 days.